Before Cail left Iven's house, he told Iven to call him if something strange happened to Jael once again. Yes, Cail finally accepted that he had to be responsible for that guy.
He looked up. It was drizzling. He opened the umbrella that he had borrowed from Iven and walked under the rain.
"Sirae..." Oris and Iven couldn't remember anything, and they had no recollection of Sirae visiting. That alone was evidence that Sirae isn't what she seemed.
"She also a void user?" Cail thought. Probably, but what is she doing lurking here? Does it have something to do with the missing artifacts?
Why does it feel like everything now is connected to the void? Now that he was walking silently under the rain, he finally had the time to think.
About that dream, Cail was starting to feel like he seemed to be following some kind of destiny. Hmm, he didn't feel bad, but was this right?
He flinched and looked down. He had stepped on a puddle.
"Fuck," he said emotionlessly and continued walking.
As he continued to walk down the alley, he noticed something was off. Unless he was going insane... "This looks unfamiliar," he said as he looked around.
Broken walls filled with vine-like cracks. The pavement ground suddenly turned into a brick-like road, and the crosswalks that were supposed to be ahead vanished.
Cail sighed. He looked back and saw that the road that he just took had vanished and was replaced with a ruined building.
"No way." He really could use a break. He looked up, and the rain continued. Now it was getting worse with thunder and lightning flashing once in a while.
He stopped in his tracks and surveyed the surroundings. It was totally unfamiliar, but based on the infrastructures, it seemed to be the ruins of a city.
Cail squatted down and pulled out a blade of grass. "I wasn't tripping. The grass does look different." It was very different from the normal one. The grass here had razor edges and a dull tip.
For some reason, Cail felt a bit uneasy. He took out his helmet from his mark and wore it. He had already activated his glasses the moment he entered the ruined city.
He looked around and tried to find his way out. "How did I arrive here?" There has to be some kind of trigger or activation.
Surveying the buildings, he was also curious about what this place was. He saw a discarded teddy bear on the side. He picked it up and checked the tag; it was a language he didn't know.
He also realized that the structures of the buildings seemed to be different from what he knew. "This doesn't feel like the real world at all."
As he continued walking, he noticed a lot of disparities in this ruined city. Their technological advancement seemed to be more advanced, based on the broken billboard and appliances that he had seen. He also found weapons and, most importantly, faint traces of void energy among those weapons.
"This place..." Cail's eyes widened, "It seems like people here already knew how to use void energy!"
It was an unexpected discovery, but Cail's heart felt heavy. "They must be very powerful." It was a fact. Then he looked at the ruins. "For their city to be this wrecked... What happened?"
Cail hadn't seen any corpses so far. It was clean. He had seen clothes, food, broken plates, toys, money. He had seen everything except people.
He stopped his search and just stood there. It was silent. The objects left behind in the ruins indicated that this place was supposed to be bustling with life... But now, it was a total ghost town.
Cail was a bit unhinged about certain things, but seeing such a huge city being wiped out left him feeling a sense of being out of control. He hated it when he wasn't in control of something.
The feeling of helplessness. With how big this city was, there must have been many people, right? None of them managed to do anything?
Just as Cail was about to check some of the ruins, he felt a gaze directed at him.
He looked back and saw that on top of a broken skyscraper was a woman wearing a white dress and a white veil. Cail's glasses were doing their work, so her facial features were clear.
Her eyes resembled a pearl with no iris, just a white iridescent rainbow glow. Her skin lacked pores, and she resembled more of a porcelain doll than a human because of how flawless she seemed.
Cail looked at her. When she saw Cail had noticed, she jumped down form the broken skyscraper.
The moment she touched the ground, Cail half expected her to clink like glass. But that aside, seeing how effortless she jumped down, Cail knew that with his current Conductor level, he couldn't do it.
"She's strong..." Cail felt wary. He didn't attack first and just waited for the woman to approach.
The woman seemed to know that Cail was a bit wary. She stopped at a safe distance. She looked at Cail up and down and tilted her head. "Unaffiliated Void User?"
Cail didn't answer, but he did take note that the woman's voice did not sound human at all. What did it sound like? Cail couldn't pinpoint, but it was very clear.
The woman didn't care about Cail's silence. "It's fine. Don't worry... But seeing that you were aimlessly wandering around, it seems like you're new?"
For some reason, Cail had an idea what she would say next.
Sure enough, the woman clasped her hands together and smiled. "If you're new, why don't you join the Void Regulation Authority (VRA)? We are a very reputable organization aiming to resolve peace between the void and the human world!"
Cail's eyebrows twitched. He had been the one doing the pitch sales; now, this time, he had encountered someone with the same scammy vibe as him. How desperate must that organization be to randomly hire people they see walking around the ruins?
Seeing that Cail still didn't react, the woman still had the smile on her face. A card appeared in her hand, and she tried to give it to Cail. "Dear! If you haven't decided yet, don't hesitate to contact me when you finally decide to join us!"
Hearing that, Cail finally couldn't hold it. "Who are you calling dear?" He had goosebumps listening to that endearment, even his mother had never called him that when he was young.
Feeling happy that Cail finally acknowledged her presence, she hopped bubbly. Contrary to her cold looks, she seemed to be a lively girl. But no matter how animated she was moving, Cail's impression of her that she resembled a doll didn't change.
But still, Cail didn't let his guard down. He had no idea how to suppress this woman yet, so it's better to get along amicably.